Men's Tennis remains unbeaten in league play with 9-0 victory over Marietta, forfeit win over Muskingum at OAC Tennis Fest

By Blake Moore

MASON — The Ohio Northern men's tennis program posted a 9-0 sweep over Ohio Athletic Conference foe Marietta during the OAC Tennis Fest Saturday at the Lindner Tennis Center in Mason, stretching its current win streak to four matches and maintaining its undefeated league record in the 2018-19 campaign.

The Polar Bears also picked up a forfeit victory over Muskingum on Saturday. The Muskies did not travel to Mason over the weekend as they did not have enough healthy players and forfeited matches to ONU, Marietta and Baldwin Wallace.

With the victories, the Polar Bears improve to 10-6 overall and 4-0 in the OAC. The Pioneers fall to 6-10 overall and 1-4 in conference play with the loss and the Muskies are now 0-18, 0-6.

Junior Connor Christian (Gallipolis/Gallia Academy), sophomore Vinh Thai (Galloway/St. Charles), and freshman Noah Elliott (Hilliard/Davidson) guided the Polar Bear efforts after winning two matches each in Saturday's conference showdown. All nine Ohio Northern players contributed one win against the Pioneers.

Northern dropped just four games en route to sweeping all three doubles matches.

Thai and Elliott blanked MC's Shane Spencer/Jack Hirschfield 8-0 on the No. 1 court to top the performances. In addition, sophomore Hoang Do (Powell/Olentangy Liberty) and freshman Zach Beaschler (Ada) won at No. 2 doubles while Christian and freshman Nate Meadors (Dublin/Jerome) claimed a victory in the No. 3 slot with similar 8-2 scorelines.

In singles action, Christian led ONU with a 6-0, 6-0 triumph on the No. 4 court for his second win Saturday. Thai and Elliott joined their teammate with two wins after capturing 6-2, 6-0 and 6-2, 1-0 (retired) victories in the No. 1 and No. 2 slots, respectively.

Meanwhile, freshman Andrew Cochran (Wooster) defeated Eric DeLong 6-0, 6-1 at No. 3 singles; sophomore Joji Imatomi (Yokohama, Japan/Kamakura Gakuen) produced a 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 10-8 superbreaker victory in the No. 5 role; and sophomore Joshua McClure (Mount Vernon) recorded a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles to complete the sweep.

Ohio Northern will return to action on Tuesday with a conference matchup at Mount Union.